Tag Archives: photos

Since the last blog we actually had a visit from Hermetix who fixed the simpler issues with the front door. On the phone they said that they did not cover the paint issue (it is peeling) on their warranty but when the technician came he stated that it was their fault as they did not prepare the door carefully enough prior to painting, so they are going to build us a new front door panel.

I am moving from our area on to the colloquial mess i.e the 2 boys’ bedrooms. I am hoping that this is not too little material – but I do not want too many photos on one page.

Before we move onto the photos I would to comment on two things. The first is that is that we completely changed the layout on this floor and so the before/after photos are a little difficult to link together. They are very different! The second is that our oldest son’s bedroom is very small (He has access to the balcony as a compensation) and I do not have a wide lens camera – this is why I do not have many decent photos of his bedroom.

Below is our oldest son’s bedroom before the work started.
This is the same area (plus the study) after the demolition.
This is the bed area as it is now. We spent a long time looking for a bed to fit well as the room is small and needed a good quality desk underneath.
This last photo is a professional photo that was taken – the props (and picture on the cupboard) do not match our family home at all – nor the room of a 12 year old boy – but the photos weren’t taken for us and so we had only a little say on the matter.

On to our younger son’s room. The first two photos show the room as it was when we moved in and after the demolition.
This next photo is actually looking out of the room when the walls were being rebuilt. The non-straight walls are to add a modicum of privacy plus fit the wardrobes into the rooms.
The last two photos show our youngest son’s room (today)

But first – a few quick updates.
The smoker was finally ordered – from a supplier in Czechoslovakia and should be arriving in another couple of weeks. It cost a bit more but at least it is on the way over. We will need a crane to get it into the garden.
We have the hook to hang up the punching bag – it will probably be hung on one of the upstairs balconies.
We contacted Hermetix – who should be getting back in touch with us…..
We went back to the garden furniture store to get a replacement for the part that attaches the parasol to the base as it didn’t fit through the hole in the table…so now that works and we can use the parasol.
So now on to the last few photos of the downstairs – areas that were missed earlier i.e. the stairs and the front entrance.

Below are our stairs as they were before and towards the end of the building work – notice the change in stone.
Below is the last “stairs” photo which is simply the bookcase that was built for us at the bottom. These stairs lead down to the rental unit below and therefore are only used as the library (no smoking room though).

Below is the entrance through its many metamorphoses.

In the photo above, you can just about see the rarest of Israeli institutions. The coat closet. Below is a photo of the closet prior to putting in the actual cupboard. As can be seen this is also our network hub which is used for external telephone and internal hard/soft wired networking.

That’s all for now. Next blog we will move into the master bedroom (and en-suite). These photos have not yet been organised – so beware of a possible time lag without yom tov as an excuse.

The garden furniture has been delivered – and has already been used. We ate Shabbat lunch outside last week as the weather is lovely at the moment.
The wooden dowels on our dining room table leaves which broke almost immediately have been fixed.

The only outstanding work is the exterior of the front door which needs repairing – still waiting for Hermetix….and we still need to sort out the smoker and putting up the punching bag in the back garden.

On to the lounge. This is the only room with multiple focal points in it – the window, piano, aquarium and fireplace. The furniture is very movable and so we actually change the layout as necessary – but our main layout points at the window and the view one step beyond.

We are now going on the circular tour starting with our largest feature – the front window. The first two photos show the window (and bars) as they were originally.

The following photo shows the window space being enlarged and supported until additional support was added to the wall.

The following photo shows the window space after being enlarged and being tidied up. The final view of this window can be seen in the penultimate photo of this post.

We are moving on from window to the back door. The first photo is how it was originally, the second is just before the new door is installed.

The door installed was wooden and needed to be painted. This was the unfinished product.

The back door after we had moved in.

Carrying on round to the fireplace. below is the fireplace that the previous owner had installed around the original fireplace.

This was the original fireplace space after it was cleaned up. The photo below is to show you how dirty the chimney was and therefore the importance of cleaning it fairly often.

The photo below shows you the changes that we made to the fireplace, in size, position and materials.

The fireplace as it is today.

This is the aquarium space before we built it. The two photos are the current state, notice the cat in the first photo…the second photo is a professional one taken by Tamar’s photographer.

The following 2 photos show the piano area being built and how it looks today.

The final two photos just show the lounge from two different directions as we often see it when walking around the house.

We now need to do some Pesach cleaning and will carry on blogging after chag…
To be continued…

Extraction fan above the oven was very noisy and has now been repaired – the reason for the noise? A wire was just touching the fan mechanism – it has now been shortened.

Hermetix finally came – we now have different locks on all of the interior doors plus the master – which is what we originally wanted. They still need to come back to fix the front door where some of the paint has come off…

The part that needs replacing after Adam backed into the garage barrier when it was up has been ordered – quite expensive due to delivery charge but that’s life.

We have planted some new indoor herbs, bought a new lime tree and herbs for the garden and also replaced a couple of the climbers that had died…so making progress there. We now need a way to cut up lots of big logs of wood into pieces that are the right size for the fireplace – not easy without a chainsaw but we don’t want to buy and there doesn’t seem to be anywhere nearby where we can hire from. Adam will probably end up hiring from a place in Tel Aviv after finishing work early one day.

And on to photos. Below is how the kitchen looked before we bought the property. The seller actually removed the kitchen before we got the keys as he was scared he would be charged tax on ‘three properties’ as there were three kitchens in the building.

The photo below is after our demolition of the inside of the property.

This shows the waste pipes for one of the kitchen sinks.

The next two show different parts of the kitchen install.

After the kitchen cabinetry was installed – the appliances arrived.

Below is how the kitchen looks today (when it is relatively tidy 🙂 ) The second photo is the one from Tamar’s photo shoot…

One on the really nice features of the kitchen is that we use an iRobot to keep it clean. Below is a photo of the iRobot outside of its home.